YOUNGSTOWN — The prosecution and defense worked out a compromise on the third day of the Lyric Moore aggravated murder trial Thursday that kept a decision on her fate from going to the jury.

Instead, Moore, 25, pleaded guilty to reduced charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated burglary and got 15 years in prison. That amount is reduced by the more than four years Moore spent in the Mahoning County jail awaiting trial.

Moore refused a plea agreement last week that could have kept her in prison more than 25 years. She took the case to trial. But before testimony resumed Thursday, prosecutors and the defense worked out another deal, and Moore accepted.

Assistant Prosecutor Mike Yacovone told Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court that prosecutors were willing to allow a plea because of “some apprehension about whether or not we could essentially prove — other than the burglary — that she had a part in the murdering of Zach Howell, did she have a part in his kidnapping.”

Prosecutors have said that Howell’s body was found inside a burned-out car behind a vacant house on Edgar Avenue on the East Side on Feb. 20, 2017. Howell had been shot. Moore’s cellphone, which was found in the vehicle, provided information tying Moore to the killing, such as text messages that helped co-defendant Terrell Martin commit the murder.

Martin, 41, pleaded guilty in March 2020 to murder and was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison.

Yacovone told the judge the events that ended with Howell’s death “start(ed) with (Moore). On behalf of the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office, we felt this was the best outcome, given the circumstances and relatively no risk of Lyric Moore walking out of the courthouse.”

Yacovone said he did not believe everyone was “happy with the deal,” including him, but “It is what it is.”

Defense attorney Mark Lavelle, who represents Moore, agreed the plea is a mixed bag, saying “It’s kind of one of those situations where you hold your nose and you do what you have to do.”

He said he thinks the state would have had some trouble proving that Moore’s “participation” in the case rose to the level of charges she faced. “How a jury would have read that, we will never know. It certainly was up in the air.”

He said if Moore were to testify, “she would say yes, she did, in fact indicate to her co-defendant that the house was unlocked.” She would have acknowledged “that there was going to be some sort of a robbery or some sort of an issue between these two men. She was, in fact, ordered out of the house immediately upon their arrival at the house.”

She complied with what Martin told her to do “as much out of fear, as much as respect or anything else,” Lavelle said. Martin ordered her to go back to Martin’s home, and that is where she went, Lavelle said. “She had no idea what occurred after that,” he said.

At the time of Howell’s death, Moore was in a romantic relationship with Howell and Martin, Lavelle said.

Several nights before Howell was killed, Martin texted Moore and asked her if she was with Howell, whether Howell had a weapon and whether the door was locked, Lavelle said. She ignored the texts initially, but Martin started up again, Lavelle said during opening statements in the trial.

This time she answered the texts and told Martin what he wanted to know, Lavelle said.

When Moore left Howell’s home, she was not allowed to take her phone with her “so she didn’t contact police,” Lavelle said.

When Moore was asked Thursday if she had anything to say to the judge, she took a long time thinking. She looked down, then up and finally apologized to Howell’s family.